PEOPLE IN PERSPECTIVE

NZ Truth, Issue 878, 23 September 1922, Page 1

PEOPLE IN PERSPECTIVE

/& them: Hawkesbury district 22 at Richmond, N.S.W., against Lord Hawkes' English eleven; Glebe Electorate district for seven years, during which that club won the premiership of N.S.W. two years m succession, some of the principal skippers opposed to him being M. A. Noble (Paddington), C. A. Richardson (East Sydney), Syd. Gregory (South Sydney), A. J. Hopkins (North Sydney), L. Page (Central Cumberland), and Sid. Austin (Waverley); N.S.W. Team through N-Z.; New Zealand through Tasmania, "Victoria and N.S.W.; Canterbury v. Wellington, Wellington v. Canterbury, Wellington v. Australia, Wairarapa v. Warner's English team, .Phoenix, Gas .Company, Petone and Wellington South. Mr Cobcroft has coached scores of teams and is still j on the job with a particularly friendly I : eye for the youngsters. For instance, this season he~ is busy with the St 7. Pat's boys, quite a few other school . teams and the Y.M.CA. clubs, and later on will take the Boys' Institute team m hand. Mr. Cobcroft's name appears over the oricket column of "Truth," and ' what he writes has authority. Mr. G. H. M. McClure, ex-Commis-sioner of Crown G- H. M. McCLURE Lands, and a AGAINST white man right THE FIELD. through, iscon- , testing Otaki for Liberal -Labour against the Massey and Holland parties, and he is certainly working hard to win his seat. "Mac." as he is generally called, js a very human person m every way —no fads, just a plain, sincere, practical man of the land and a good fellow as well. As a rider to hounds m Canterbury m the old days, or as a surveyor m the cutting up of Cheviot, well known through George Forbes, M.P.— "Mac" is respected by all and considered m all circles a sport of sports. ■ His big heart, shown m his treatment of the soldiers of the district, and his thorough knowledge of land and stock would make him a valuable member of Parliament, while his Intimate and thorough knowledge of the administration and inner knowledge of the Lands Department would, m the event of his success at the polls, place at the service of the country an expert indeed m the many problems dealing with the land, which come up for consideration m Parliament. Tom Wilford's old district, from Silverstream to Akatarawa, is now m Otaki, and m the canvass .of that part of the district by Tom and Mac recently we can say with truth and m "Truth" that "Mac's" prospects on this side of the hill are bright indeed. Field, who got into Parliament on the Seddon side, is now a. Reformer. Again we say that McClure is "the favourite against the Field,"

James Young, the Lib-Lab Candidate for WellingWELLINGTON NORTH ton North, JAMES YOUNG is a type of A SPORT New Zealander who appeals to one and all. Born m Canterbury of the early pioneer stock, James, who is a canny Scotchman with the determination of his kind, won his cap as a representative Rugby footballer with Arthur Cooper and George Campbell m Wellington aiid was one of the finest Rugby exponents N.Z. has seen. For nineteen years he also presided as chairman of the Management Committee of the % New Cricket Council, and until quite recently was a cricketer "of no mean ability He retired from the Railways last year on superannuation, having been for 8 years President of the Railway Officars'Institute, which institute looks after all. the clerks and. stationmasters m the Dominion On his retirement he received tangible evidenoe from the railwaymon of their appreciation of his services while President m bettering the status and conditions of the clerks and stationmasters m the service. Mr Young has been a life-long Liberal and a friend of the workers, who are daily ' expressing their satisfaction to him at his candidature. Most civil servants m Wellington North who do not stand for Holland will stand for Young, we fancy, for Young stands for the' workers without standing for the Holland Party, while Combs, the other Civil Service candidate, stands for extreme Labor. Sir John will have to look to his laurels. In the meantime James Young is untiringly canvassing his electorate and is gaining hosts of friends. Jimmy Nash, who represents Palmerston m Par'liaA PALMERSTON ment, really bePERSONAGE lieves that P.N. is IT m the populosity of our bit Of the earth. : It is neither rude hbr crude to call him Jimmy. Everybody calls him Jimmy. Jimmy has grown' up with P.N., and he verily believes that he has had a great deal to do with creating it the fifth city of the universe — at any rate, of New Zealand. (No reflection on Hamilton or Brooklyn.) He is P.N.s One Identity. He knows everybody there and everybody knows him. Not to know jimmy and the Square (have you thought over our Gardens?) is not to know the first thing about the Whence of the Maori or the History of the Manawatu. If Jimmy Nash's brain-pan had its lid taken off — just supposing!— you would find its corrugations wriggling out the magic sign: "Palmerston North!" For, of course, the member for IT always gives all the letters of the alphabet ■ their full sounding — and P.N. is the alphabet. Really and truly Jimmy believes that there is not and never would have been any hub to the North Island if it had not been fer Jimmy himself. And that he has convinced many people to the same way of thinking is proved by the double-bar-relled fact that they dare not let go

of him as Mayor and he will not let go of them as member for' the electorate. There is no man m New Zealand who is more of a fixture to his town than ' Jimmy Nash. This is said without any fear (or expectation) of contradiction. This is not bit of pre-election propaganda. Jimmy may be up against it yet. Remember what Herbert Asquith is m the habit of saying? Quite right! P.N. would slip off the map if it lost its Jimmy. He has that as a real fear to haunt his frequent passages on the train up and down the line. This column isn't, elastic enough to carry the list of things that Jimmy means to the Fifth Largest. And he believes, also, that the Massey Government will riever get anywhere worth while unless and until Jimmy Nash is guiding its affairs from within the holy of holies that pans out the big salary of the men highest up. Watch his steps! :: :: -si Prisoners as a rule are not given to returning thanks OF THE PRISONS' for the treatment ■ DEPARTMENT they receive from - - . tho . Prisons Der partment. Some of them, of course, do— thoso who make good afterwards. But if prisoners would think back ten or fifteen years thoy would, without exception, express some appreciation of the fact that things to-day are not what they were then. If they thought back forty years they would burst into song. Punishment was the idea then, reformation and a help on the way is the idea to-day, and no man m New Zealand has done more to bring that ideal into practice than the Controller-General of Prisons, Mr. C. E. Matthews, either by carrying out the policies of successive Ministers or by introducing new idea 3 into the prison system. Mr. Matthews joined the Civil Service as a cadet m the Treasury. Department m 1889 and six years later moved over to the Justice Department, becoming private secretary to the then Minister for Justice, the late Hon. Thomas Thompson. In 1909 he was transferred to the Department of Public Works and Mines, but not for long, for m the following year he was appointed Chief Clerk to the Police Department, under Commissioner Waldegrave. The Justice Department called again, and -in. 1912 he filled the Chief Clerk's chair till the appointment of Deputy Inspector of Prisons was -made. A trip to Australia was made by Mr, Matthews iri 1914, and as a result of the report he submitted to his Minister, the Hon, A. L- Herdman, several important alterations and , modifications were made m the Acts, regulations and rules governing the New Zealand prison system. The full charge of the administration of the Department was handed over to Mr. Matthews '■■ 1918, and he took over the title of Control-ler-General m the following year. Mr. Matthews is also Chief Probation .Ofiicer for the Dominion, and on Ist January last was made'; Under-Sec-retary for Justice. He has also been a member of the Prisons Board for some years. Mr. Matthews is the type of man who believes that he cannot control a Prisons Department unless .he knows the men he has to deal with, and probably' 0 he knows more prisoners personally than any. other two men m the country,* and the Department and the prisoners are. so much the better for it.